Thursday February 26th, 2009
I have no idea how an entry grade, 100 level class can make anyone truly appreciate anything.
Art Appreciation.
Sitting in a lecture hall watching slides of the Mona Lisa or a work by Claude Monet flash across a screen only makes me bored. Rodin means nothing in a dark room with a monotone-voiced professor droning on and on.
Only standing nose-to-canvas with Nympheas 
Bleus and then walking across a bridge in Monet’s gardens at Giverney, France on a rainy day does one truly appreciate the artist and his work. The light drenched main hall in the Musee d’Orsay puts Rodin’s sculptures in their intended environment: a place where I, average on all scales, can be amazed and deeply touched by the breadth and skill of the sculptor. The stained glass light of the Canterbury Cathedral coming in during the late afternoon – no book can come close.
Bleus and then walking across a bridge in Monet’s gardens at Giverney, France on a rainy day does one truly appreciate the artist and his work. The light drenched main hall in the Musee d’Orsay puts Rodin’s sculptures in their intended environment: a place where I, average on all scales, can be amazed and deeply touched by the breadth and skill of the sculptor. The stained glass light of the Canterbury Cathedral coming in during the late afternoon – no book can come close.
[Incidentally, the U.S. has no art compared to that of Europe. They drip with it.]
The only way to truly appreciate something is to experience it – to live inside it, even for a minute, to be carried away by the engulfing, touchable beauty. The only way to truly appreciate another person is in the same way.
I’ve been married for nearly 13 years and I still don’t really appreciate my husband. Not really. And he doesn’t really appreciate me either.
We love each other. So much. But we do not appreciate each other purely for the distinct artistry of who we each uniquely are.. But we should.
I understand my goal might be idealistic, but I think its possible. The quirks and irritations of his personality, the failures of him: I usually work around them. I love him, but I love him despite his ADD, despite his chronic lateness and forgetfulness. This isn’t good enough.
Instead of loving DESPITE, I want to love BECAUSE OF. I want to appreciate all of who he is, not just the parts that are beautiful on the surface. And conversely I don’t want him to simply learn to live with my sensitivity, I want him to love me because of it.
And there is the art: appreciating the canvas of personality with all of its intricacies and depth. We can’t truly experience it in a dark lecture hall or even in the nave of cathedral. This kind of art takes a lifetime to appreciate.
how beautiful…how true…how worthy a goal!
love,
dad
once i asked michael’s grandmother if she and her husband (who is now with the Lord) ever argued. she replied only once about which way the toilet paper roll should be hung. each thought the other hung it the wrong way. now years later (missing the distinct artistry of who he was) she hangs it his way.
i don’t think your ideas are idealistic. but oh, the work it will take to love my wonderful husband because of his forgetfulness.
but he doe love my sensitivity, guess i owe him one.
i think it’s more than possible. i’ve felt it from friends who love me not despite my limitations but because of them. and nothing has ever made me feel more loved in all of my 35 years.
worthy and reachable goal. especially for a heart like yours.
beautiful. simply beautiful
woah.
i long for that. don’t know that i’ll feel it in this lifetime. but i long for that.